Over 1,000 rhinos were poached in South Africa in 2013, fuelled by a demand for their horns in Asian countries, where they are believed to have medicinal properties.
Sadly, this trend appears to be continuing to rise, as illegal hunting of rhinos is already up more than a third, from 203 at the same time a year ago, to 277 rhinos which have already been poached in South Africa in 2014. The poachers seem unstoppable: in Kruger National Park alone, 166 animals have been killed, despite the deployment of troops to protect them. In contrast, only 32 people have been arrested to poaching related incidents, and the authorities cannot give the number of cases that have been successfully prosecuted so far.
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